An NBN review panel appointed by the government and chaired by Dr
Michael Vertigan
, called for “vectored VDSL broadband" services offered by TPG and other companies to be “declared", which would force them to become wholesale products available to rival companies at a regulated price.

The Vertigan Panel was formed to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the national broadband network and to review the country’s telecommunications ­regulations.

The panel’s first report has called for the Australian Competition and ­Consumer Commission to be subjected to tougher oversight and not be allowed to govern itself.

Macquarie Telecom
national executive
Matt Healy
said the move could spell the end of TPG’s plan.

“Previously they had an advantage to build because once it was in a building it had exclusive rights to those ­customers," he said.

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“These recommendations don’t put a prohibition on TPG but they don’t put it in a monopoly position where ­apartment owners have no choice but TPG either. Now that exclusivity is gone, it might be better for them to buy off NBN Co and compete like the rest of the sector," he said.

CIMB research analyst
Ian Martin
said TPG Telecom would be better off without the ACCC’s involvement.

“It may not be in its interests but I think it would have expected that that’s where it would end up," he said.

Industry body Communications Alliance should help negotiate access arrangements in situations where a building’s broadband services were degraded by the presence of signals from rival telcos networks, it added.

A recommendation that could help reshape Australia’s telecommunications industry is the panel’s push to have the ­Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s decisions subject to review.

“The panel is concerned that the wide-ranging discretions that the regime vests in the ACCC mean that the risks and costs of regulatory error are potentially very high with virtually no checks and balances in place to curb any resulting harms," it said.

“It is inappropriate and offensive to the norms of good government that ­regulators should be left to regulate themselves," it said.

“It is therefore, appropriate that decisions of enduring impact be subject to regulatory oversight, and decisions in relation to access determinations should be subject to merits review."

Macquarie Telecom’s Mr Healy said the push for merits reviews would expose the ACCC to “endless court ­litigation" by Telstra.“The review is the first report of the Vertigan Panel," Mr Turnbull said. “The panel is continuing with its cost-benefit analysis work and review of broader structural and regulatory issues and is expected to complete these elements over the next few weeks."

“Telstra has been asking for the chance to take the regulator to court and have matters re-heard for more than a decade," he said. “Certainly one of the Vertigan members during that period was a very strong advocate for merit review so it’s no surprise Henry Ergas has pushed for this.

“We hope the government doesn’t swallow this particular recommendation because it would be bad for consumers."

Another area of key interest to the market is the Vertigan Panel’s push for the government to relieve laws that prevent NBN Co from offering different prices to different customers.

“Non-discrimination requirements should remain in place but should be amended to allow NBN Co to differentiate its service agreements where this provided genuine economic efficiencies or if the ACCC justified it occurring in particular circumstances," it said.

Major telcos such as Telstra would greatly benefit from such a move because it could give them volume discounts and shift users onto the NBN faster.

But this in turn could see smaller telcos like iiNet and M2 Group paying higher prices for the same services.

Both Communications Minister
Malcolm Turnbull
and Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare said in separate statements they would respond to the review after consulting the telco industry.